Company Van use

[Mid life crisis]

Being a nerdy bean counter the above does sort o work, but you need to be aware of a few things...

1. if you buy the van off he company, it needs to be at "arms length" and at market rates (just get a glass' guide valuation off tinternet for £3 and claim it was below average condition (most vans in my experience)

2. the £200 cover charge would be taxable as part of your salary

3. the allowance of 40p per mile (first 4000 miles, then down to 25p for the rest), is tax free, but you need to keep petrol receipts and a fairly detailed account of your business miles.

The £3000 charge is the taxable benefit (ie you only get taxed on this amount (as per previous poster), so either £1200 for 40% payers or £660 for the basic band - but watch the class 1a nics if you are self employed.

The revenue (god love 'em) will allow you to take the van home for security purposes for no charge and will even allow for "occasional use" which they define as taking bulky items to the tip etc. but specifically don't allow the weekly shop.

I think that covers most things - if you ahev any more qn's I may be able to help

HTH

edited to add : oh and it helps prove you don't drive it personally (should you decide you don't drive it privately    ), if the van is signwritten.

Hi James has the 40p element been reduced to 4,000 miles this year, as I have always in the past claimed for the first 10,000 at this rate. I have just had a look at the revenue's sight and they are still showing 10k from 2003 onwards

     

[hixxj]

sorry - my mistake 10,000 miles at 40p = £4000

Doh  

will edit the original to prevent any confusion.

(too busy buying rear calipers for the westy cos the ba*tard things have seized, got some shiny black ones coming from bigredd tho' so thats   )

[Mike H]

Don't see the problem myself.

Most of us have to buy a car to drive to work so why should van drivers get free transport?

If you use the van to go to and from work and are not self emplyed + based at home then you should be taxed on it IMO!

Mike  

[Bazzer]

Don't see the problem myself.

Most of us have to buy a car to drive to work so why should van drivers get free transport?

If you use the van to go to and from work and are not self emplyed + based at home then you should be taxed on it IMO!

Mike  

Must admit I was thinking this as well.

I am self employed and have always been taxed when I had a company car.

Its fair however if you use your car for bussiness you should be compensated for it.

But if you have use of a car or van for personel use then its a benefit in kind and you should expect to be taxed on it.

Cheers

Bazzer

[markboyce]

QUOTE

Most of us have to buy a car to drive to work so why should van drivers get free transport?

Err.... buy a van instead of a car then  

[Bazzer]

Most of us have to buy a car to drive to work so why should van drivers get free transport?

Err.... buy a van instead of a car then  

Yes but you would still have to buy the van and run it so you would not be any better off !!!

Bazzer

[markboyce]

Hmm.. I did not think this one through did I..

Unless you have a company car and changed it for a company van  

/not good basis for argument

[Mid life crisis]

Hmm.. I did not think this one through did I..

Unless you have a company car and changed it for a company van  

/not good basis for argument

Or you can get rid of the company car and run your own, and give Mr Brown a little less of your hard earned.        

     

[hixxj]

apart from the tax on fuel, vat on the car, road tax, insurnace premium tax, oh, and income tax before you had the money to buy the car

Am I helping?          

[Mid life crisis]

Every little helps          

         

[jeff oakley]

Don't see the problem myself.

Most of us have to buy a car to drive to work so why should van drivers get free transport?

If you use the van to go to and from work and are not self emplyed + based at home then you should be taxed on it IMO!

Mike  

This is the usual response to company cars. If I cannot have one why should anyone else.

I have no problem being charged for the private use of my car if it was a reasonable charge, however I object to having to pay to do the job. There is a world of differance between someone who has to visit customers, or go to a place to do a job, like a plumber or alarm engineer, as part of their job and someone who has to to have their own car to get to work.

The old system gave a tax break to genuine people who needed a car to get to do the job. But as it was mileage based the tax office decided to help reduce congestion by taking away that allowance.

Vans have always been subjected to tax for personel use, what has changed is the tax man has decided £3k is a good figure to use as taxable benift to start at, how they arrived at that figure no one knows.

I am with Spence, they punish hard work and enterprise to pay for those who will not, it really is that simple.

[Nick Algar - Competition Secretary]

I am with Spence, they punish hard work and enterprise to pay for those who will not, it really is that simple.

spot on Jeff, and unfortunatley it's getting worse   still don't worry the last working person to leave the country can always turn the lights out. Cause those who are left won't be bothered to do it  

[spence]

Don't see the problem myself.

Most of us have to buy a car to drive to work so why should van drivers get free transport?

If you use the van to go to and from work and are not self emplyed + based at home then you should be taxed on it IMO!

Mike  

Fair enough.

Fact is it's mine and a mates company. I have had to buy the van which I've worked ####### hard to pay for. Yeah i now it's the company's money but without us there would be no company.

IMHO i pay enough ####### tax to this government. Unlike lazy B****** who sit on their fat back sides all day, get given everything for doing sod all living off the backs of people like myself.

Sorry to sound a bit abrupt but it P##### me off.

[Bazzer]

I agree that small business pay too much tax in this country and also they are subject to tax law that gives bigger companies a financial benefit.

While I would use any options legaly available to mitigate the amount of tax I pay. I can't help but think its not unreasonable to pay tax on any benefit in kind. Otherwise whats next company big screen TV's and company golf clubs ?

As the others have said Spence it might be worth doing the sums to see how owning the van and charging mileage stack up.

Bazzer

[Mike H]

This is the usual response to company cars. If I cannot have one why should anyone else.

I have no problem being charged for the private use of my car if it was a reasonable charge, however I object to having to pay to do the job. There is a world of differance between someone who has to visit customers, or go to a place to do a job, like a plumber or alarm engineer, as part of their job and someone who has to to have their own car to get to work.

The old system gave a tax break to genuine people who needed a car to get to do the job. But as it was mileage based the tax office decided to help reduce congestion by taking away that allowance.

Vans have always been subjected to tax for personel use, what has changed is the tax man has decided £3k is a good figure to use as taxable benift to start at, how they arrived at that figure no one knows.

I am with Spence, they punish hard work and enterprise to pay for those who will not, it really is that simple.

Eh?  No-one said anything about company cars - that is something totally different.  We are talking about use of company vans to effectively get to and from work for nothing and like I said being self employed and based at home should be treated differently.

 

Company cars ARE a benefit and should be taxed as such so just deal with it!

Mike